BOULLEMIER

TONY

Standing up for Nelson's Column

By tboullemier, Aug 23 2017 10:38AM

CONGRATULATIONS to the Daily Mail for ignoring the Nelson’s Column story – unlike other national papers which have wasted lots of ink on it.

American protestors have been pulling down statues of General Robert E. Lee and his ilk because they supported slavery.

Now, an unbelievably misguided journalist has got lots of publicity by saying we should do the same to Nelson’s Column.

I won't contribute to her publicity by naming her, but she claims Nelson supported slavery so his statue should go.

It is likely he accepted slavery as an unpalatable fact, as did many in the 1700s and even early 1800s. However, he was a man of his time and should be judged on this basis.

But does this foolish woman not realise that were it not for Admiral Nelson, we would all be speaking French?

Napoleon’s Grand Armee was camped, 200,000-strong, on the French coast awaiting the combined French and Spanish fleets to clear the Channel of English warships and transport the troops to England.

Had they arrived, we simply wouldn’t have had the army to cope with them. Wellington could never assemble more than 30,000 or 40,000 troops to fight the Peninsular Wars that followed.

Fortunately, Nelson’s gruelling blockading tactics and his defining victory at Trafalgar destroyed Napoleon's fleets and stopped the invasion in its tracks.

Horatio Nelson gave his life for England when he died at Trafalgar and thanks to him, we are still speaking English.

And that is why he should stand atop a mighty column in Trafalgar Square until the end of time.

PS: Since posting my views on Aug 23, the Daily Mail DID write about this. The next day Max Hastings said almost exactly the same as I did. Although I was disappointed to see he named the Guardian journalist spouting this utter nonsense.